Gene expression profiling of muscle tissue in Brahman steers during nutritional restriction

Expression profiling using microarrays allows for the detailed characterization of the gene networks that regulate an animal's response to environmental stresses. During nutritional restriction, processes such as protein turnover, connective tissue remodeling, and muscle atrophy take place in the skeletal muscle of the animal. These processes and their regulation are of interest in the context of managing livestock for optimal production efficiency and product quality. Here we expand on recent research applying complementary DNA (cDNA) microarray technology to the study of the effect of nutritional restriction on bovine skeletal muscle. Using a custom cDNA microarray of 9,274 probes from cattle muscle and s.c. fat libraries, we examined the differential gene expression profile of the LM from 10 Brahman steers under three different dietary treatments. The statistical approach was based on mixed-model ANOVA and model-based clustering of the BLUP solutions for the gene x diet interaction effect. From the results, we defined a transcript profile of 156 differentially expressed array elements between the weight loss and weight gain diet substrates. After sequence and annotation analyses, the 57 upregulated elements represented 29 unique genes, and the 99 downregulated elements represented 28 unique genes. Most of these co-regulated genes cluster into groups with distinct biological function related to protein turnover and cytoskeletal metabolism and contribute to our mechanistic understanding of the processes associated with remodeling of muscle tissue in response to nutritional stress.